Indigenous Affairs to provide missing documents to PBO

Department originally said First Nations education documents didn’t exist

Native Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett answers a question during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday, June 15, 2016. Bennett says she'd like to see a lawsuit over the '60s Scoop taken out of court and discussed at a table.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

Despite having originally denied their existence, the federal Indigenous Affairs Department says it will hand over to the parliamentary budget office a number of relevant documents pertaining to First Nations education.

The office requested the information last month after learning from the federal auditor general that it was both available and relevant to an ongoing federal spending analysis.

A spokesperson for Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett blames the problem on a “miscommunication.”

She says the department is in the process of providing the PBO with the information.

Parliamentary budget officer Jean-Denis Frechette says his office has been in regular contact with Indigenous Affairs for many months, and that he’ll follow up on Friday if he does not hear back from the government.

NDP indigenous affairs critic Charlie Angus says government transparency is paramount, and that First Nations education has been a “complete failure.”